Their attitudes towards elderly parents. I’ve been told I shouldn’t worry about helping them in their old age because they had their chance to work and save for retirement and so it’s their responsibility of it’s not enough. Except… They didn’t. They migrated here with nothing, provided for THEIR parents their whole lives, and did the best they could for me, which left them with next to nothing. Westerners assume everyone boomer aged or so had the same opportunities that their parents had. The nuclear family is also very hands-off about caring for the elderly. That’s not how most of the world operates. Plus, it’s so sad!
Yep, same in the UK. We’ve abandoned our elderly and seemingly can’t wait for our kids to leave so that we enjoy maybe 10 years of watching TV and not working before we die.
In other, less ‘developed’ countries the family is a unit. The elderly help with the infants (which has been proven to be mutually beneficial), while the rest of the family works or helps maintain the household. There’s way less likelyhood of abandonment or lonliness in old age, which in my country is endemic.
Their attitudes towards elderly parents. I’ve been told I shouldn’t worry about helping them in their old age because they had their chance to work and save for retirement and so it’s their responsibility of it’s not enough. Except… They didn’t. They migrated here with nothing, provided for THEIR parents their whole lives, and did the best they could for me, which left them with next to nothing. Westerners assume everyone boomer aged or so had the same opportunities that their parents had. The nuclear family is also very hands-off about caring for the elderly. That’s not how most of the world operates. Plus, it’s so sad!
Yep, same in the UK. We’ve abandoned our elderly and seemingly can’t wait for our kids to leave so that we enjoy maybe 10 years of watching TV and not working before we die.
In other, less ‘developed’ countries the family is a unit. The elderly help with the infants (which has been proven to be mutually beneficial), while the rest of the family works or helps maintain the household. There’s way less likelyhood of abandonment or lonliness in old age, which in my country is endemic.
Jaysus